Meredith to sell UK arm of Time Inc to Epiris Fund

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(Reuters) - U.S. media company Meredith Corp (MDP.N) said on Monday that it would sell Time Inc’s UK arm, publisher of NME and Marie Claire, just a month after completing the acquisition of its parent company.

Financial terms of the sale to private equity firm Epiris Fund II were not disclosed.

Prior to Meredith’s acquisition, Time had been exploring a sale of several assets, including Time Inc UK. The assets marked for divestitures represented about $488 million in revenue for the year ended June 30.

Meredith had bought Time, the publisher of People, Sports Illustrated and Fortune magazines, for $1.84 billion in November, in an all-cash deal backed by conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.

The sale of Time UK is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2018, Meredith said. Barou Advisers and Herbert Smith Freehills LLP advised Meredith on the deal.

Time Warner Inc TWX.N spun off Time, which also publishes the eponymous current affairs magazine, as a standalone company in June 2014.

Since then, New York-based Time had struggled in an industry-wide decline in print media, as circulation shrinks and advertisers shift to digital platforms.

Reporting by Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta